Language instructor, miscellaneous writer. Address: 242 Nordblaak, Rotterdam. The Adresboek van Rotterdam, 1856 lists the resident at the above address as C.H. Gunn; Wijkregister volkstelling, 1849, gives Gunn's first name as Charles (information from Bibliotheek en Leeszalen der Gemeente, Rotterdam).

In his first book, Desultory Hours, 1844, Gunn included the poem "On Being Invited to Reside Abroad"; in it, he protested that no "proffered gold" could ever tempt him "in foreign lands to dwell". In 1848, nevertheless, became resident of Rotterdam; worked there as tutor and teacher of English. Latest Rotterdam directory in which his name appears is that for 1859; presumably left Rotterdam in that or the following year. In the 1860s was lecturer on English language and literature at Municipal Gymnasium, Amsterdam. Edited, in Amsterdam, the English and American Monthly Reviewer, 1864. Published works on English composition and phraseology, also readers and manuals for the use of students learning English. His "Rules for the Use of Will and Shall" reprinted, with Gunn's permission, in 2nd ed. (1858) of Sir Edmund W. Head's "Shall" and "Will” as useful for "the guidance of foreigners". Compiled The Golden Treasury of English Poetry, Amsterdam, 1862, in which he included some of his own verses.

In his Manual of Modem English Prose Literature, 1862, Gunn included, in the section on Dickens, selections from Pickwick, Copperfield, Old Curiosity Shop, and A Child's History of England. He gave a brief sketch of Dickens's career, and commented on the vigour and naturalness of his character-drawing and the interest of his novels. "Of all our English writers", wrote Gunn, "perhaps none has succeeded in impressing his own characteristics on popular contemporaneous literature so effectually as this pleasing and successful writer".

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1973.